Inside The Film Room With Paul Haynes: Penn State Edition

Monday

Sep 23, 2013 at 4:00 AM

Here's what Kent State football coach Paul Haynes noticed after reviewing the film from Saturday's 34-0 road loss at Penn State:

OVERALL ANALYSIS: "It was good to see some improvement, some excitement. They're a good football team. It's crazy how you're actually starting to hear some panic out there (in the public), and you play two perennially very good college football teams, and it's Week 4, so you still have a long way to go. That's a good thing too that the expectation level has gone up. But we aren't there yet. Football ain't fixed yet here. We still have a long way to go to get this to be a great program. I'm not talking about a team, a great program."

OFFENSE

The Flashes were held to 190 total yards, including just 54 yards rushing on 24 attempts.

WHAT STOOD OUT: "We left a lot of plays out on the field offensively that could have kept drives alive, just guys (not) sustaining the block here and, a guy (not) catching the ball there. We took our turns (making mistakes). Just a play here, and a play there.

"It's one of those games that (Reardon) didn't play like he was playing, but he's just gotta improve and learn from it and move on."

DEFENSE

Kent State held Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg to 13-of-35 passing for 176 yards with an interception, and limited reigning Big Ten Wide Receiver of the Year Allen Robinson to three catches for 43 yards. However, the Nittany Lions rushed for 287 yards, averaging 5.4 yards per attempt.

WHAT STOOD OUT: "Guys (in the secondary) made plays, which was good to see cause those were plays we didn't make the week before. I'm not taking anything away from (Robinson), but there's nothing we did any different for him. The numbers are the numbers, but I wasn't afraid of any of our guys trying to cover him. We didn't say we had to double him. We have to do what we do, and we've gotta continue to get better at it, but my main concern is stopping the run. We've still gotta get better at stopping the run. That's the thing that is killing us right now, and also giving up too many big plays."

The Flashes were able to generate decent pressure on Hackenberg many times by just rushing four.

"Any time you can get pressure with just four you've got a chance to play coverage and mix it up a little bit. It's just all about getting them to third down (and long). When we got them in those third-and-seven and third-and-eight situations, we were able to do some things and make their young quarterback be perfect in throwing the ball. But those third and ones and twos, that's an offensive advantage."

SPECIAL TEAMS

Sophomore Anthony Melchiori missed a 31-yard field-goal attempt on Kent State's opening possession, but punted 10 times for a 46.5-yard average with four downed inside the PSU 20.

WHAT STOOD OUT: "Melchiori continues to do a great job in changing the field. Our coverage units are doing a good job. There's a lot of things we can still get better at, but right now our special teams have been a highlight of this football team. And the great thing about it is there's a lot of young guys running down on those units."

INJURY UPDATE: The Flashes lost their second nose guard in as many games when sophomore Chris Fairchild went down in the second quarter and did not return. Backup running back Anthony Meray was also injured during the game.

"It's just one of those years so far right now with injuries. There is no such thing as luck in winning, the luck in football to me is staying healthy. That's when you are lucky. And right now we're not being lucky in that category, we're not keeping guys healthy. And when you play four really tough football games and tough football teams in a row, it's going to happen."

The Flashes did receive some good news on the injury front Sunday.

"(Fairchild's injury) is not as bad as it seemed. We think it's just an ankle, and Meray is just an ankle."

Senior speedster Dri Archer and senior left guard Pat McShane did not play at Penn State.

"This right now is where it starts. We've got eight games left, and seven of those eight are conference games. There's no game left that we can't win, and there's no game we can't lose too if we don't play well."

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